By Mason Levinson and Michael Buteau
June 13 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency brought
doping charges against Lance Armstrong that may cost him his
record seven Tour de France titles, the cyclist said.
Armstrong also is banned immediately from competing in
triathlons organized by the World Triathlon Corp., which runs
the Ironman series, because of the investigation.
Armstrong, three doctors and two officials from the
cyclist’s former U.S. Postal Service team were notified of the
doping allegations yesterday, USADA Chief Executive Officer
Travis Tygart said in an e-mailed statement. The letter is the
first step in the legal process for alleged doping violations,
Tygart said.
“USADA only initiates matters supported by the evidence,”
Tygart said. “We do not choose whether or not we do our job
based on outside pressures, intimidation or for any reason other
than the evidence.”
Armstrong called the charges “baseless.”
“I have been notified that USADA, an organization largely
funded by taxpayer dollars but governed only by self-written
rules, intends to again dredge up discredited allegations dating
back more than 16 years to prevent me from competing as a
triathlete and try and strip me of the seven Tour de France
victories I earned,” Armstrong said.
The USADA charges, first reported today by the Washington
Post, come after Armstrong’s attorney said the cyclist failed to
meet with the agency by June 8, four days after receiving a
letter offering him an “opportunity to talk about drug use in
cycling.” Robert Luskin, Armstrong’s attorney, wrote in a
letter to USADA that the meeting was a “demand wrapped in a
threat” seeking Armstrong’s confession.

‘This Charade’

“We will not be party to this charade,” Luskin wrote in
the June 8 letter. “Lance has publicly and repeatedly made
clear that he never doped.”
Armstrong, who has endorsement agreements with Nike Inc.,
Trek Bicycle Corp. and Oakley Inc., was scheduled to race his
first professional full Ironman event June 24 in Nice, France,
to try to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii
on Oct. 13. World Triathlon has an agreement with Armstrong’s
Texas-based Livestrong charity.
Comcast Corp.’s NBC network said last week it planned to
air this year’s championship race on Oct. 27, six weeks earlier
than usual, and expand the coverage to two hours from 90
minutes. The network said the coverage was expected to focus
heavily on Armstrong.

UCI Statement

Cycling’s world governing body, the International Cycling
Union or UCI, said in a statement that it had been notified of
USADA’s probe. It didn’t identify any of the people involved.
USADA made previously unpublicized allegations against
Armstrong, saying it collected blood samples from him in 2009
and 2010 that were “fully consistent with blood manipulation
including EPO use and/or blood transfusions,” the Post said.
The newspaper cited what it said was a 15-page charging letter
that was sent to Armstrong and several others yesterday, a copy
of which it obtained.
EPO is the abbreviation for erythropoietin, which can add
energy-boosting properties to blood. Doping authorities say that
drug, and transfused blood, have been used by athletes in
endurance sports such as cycling and cross-country skiing to
increase performance.

No Tests

Armstrong never has been publicly identified as testing
positive for performance-enhancing drugs. On Feb. 4, the U.S.
attorney in Los Angeles ended a criminal drug probe involving
Armstrong and his professional bicycle racing team without
filing charges.
USADA also alleges that Armstrong and five former cycling
team associates engaged in a massive doping conspiracy from 1998
to 2011, the Post said.
“These are the very same charges and the same witnesses
that the Justice Department chose not to pursue after a two-year
investigation,” Armstrong said in his statement. “These
charges are baseless, motivated by spite and advanced through
testimony bought and paid for by promises of anonymity and
immunity. Although USADA alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy
extended over more than 16 years, I am the only athlete it has
chosen to charge. USADA’s malice, its methods, its star-chamber
practices and its decision to punish first and adjudicate later
all are at odds with our ideals of fairness and fair play.”

Tour Streak

Armstrong, 40, won the Tour de France, cycling’s most
prestigious event, each year from 1999 to 2005 after surviving
testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs.
He also has helped bring more attention to triathlon since
he returned to the sport on Feb. 12 in Panama, where he finished
second in his first half Ironman 70.3-mile (113-kilometer) race.
He won his last two half Ironman events, which feature a 1.2-
mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run. Armstrong
competed as a professional triathlete at 18 before focusing on
cycling.
World Triathlon Corp. rules “dictate an athlete is
ineligible to compete during an open investigation,” the agency
said in an e-mailed statement.
“Armstrong is therefore suspended from competing in WTC-
owned and licensed races pending further review,” according to
the statement.

Pretty much every top pro cyclist is doping. There is a negative 2 million % chance that Lance was clean. And that's being generous.

Let's put it this way: you're riding 100 miles a day every day for three straight weeks (2,200 miles) averaging 28 mph ON A BICYCLE FOR THE ENTIRE RACE. And they have several races like this on the pro tour, such as the Giro d' Italia.

This includes time trials where you can't draft anyone, and includes mountains so steep a normal person couldn't walk up them for any period of time.

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At this point, there has to be legitimate discussion of legalizing PED's. It's happening in MMA with Testosterone Replacement Therapy already.

The evidence is mounting and I don't think there's ever been the meticulous investigation needed given the many ways these drugs can be masked.

B,

I'm not sure I understand that statement. Are you saying the Justice Department's two year investigation wasn't meticulous?

I agree the drugs can be masked - more correctly: not enough labs are testing completely - but I'd think the the LA Attorney's Office - traveling to France, Spain, and multiple US States was pretty meticulous along the way.

USDA has a wider remit and is the apprpopriate body to invstigate irregularities in sport, not breaches of criminal law:

'The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which also has been investigating doping allegations against Armstrong and professional cycling, released a statement Friday saying its probe would remain open.

“Unlike the U.S. Attorney, USADA’s job is to protect clean sport rather than enforce specific criminal laws,” USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said. “Our investigation into doping in the sport of cycling is continuing and we look forward to obtaining the information developed during the federal investigation.”

It is unclear whether federal investigators will hand over material obtained in the case, though there is some precedent for doing so. A spokesman in the Los Angeles office declined to comment.'

The letter specifically alleges that “multiple riders with firsthand knowledge” will testify that Armstrong used EPO — shorthand for erythropoietin, an endurance-boosting drug — blood transfusions, testosterone and masking agents, and that he distributed and administered drugs to other cyclists from 1998 to 2005. The letter alleges that numerous witnesses will testify that Armstrong also used human growth hormone before 1996.

By that logic, the Feds, the USDA, et al. are going to spend a hell of a lot of time (and money) investigating men who ride bicycles for sport. But let's make the wild assumption that these investigations are resources well spent, don't you think they should go after "cheating scum" that they would have an easier time pinning a case on?

__________________
Remember this, you are lucky to have lived during the golden age of beer (except Guinness, Heineken and Sam Adams).

The evidence is mounting and I don't think there's ever been the meticulous investigation needed given the many ways these drugs can be masked.

Mounting??? It's the same old evidence........you don't think that the French would have LOVED to nail him....trust me the Frenchnofficals did all they could to prove he doped and nothing came of it. The US went after him.....nothing. Now we have another one.....I bet it's more sour grapes than anything as they asked to meet with him and he told them to shove it. The fact hat he has been tested over 500 times over the years with ZERO positives.....the whole sport was/is full of doping - so freaking what. Let's go back to every single medal winner in the Olympics from the Eastern Block from the 50s until today and lets see how many pass those tests. Hell I bet half of the "female" medal winners from that period are actually all male.

Basically everyone who's ever come out against him or claimed they knew about his/his team's PED use has been subjected to a concerted PR campaign to discredit them or their organisation by Armstrong.

It's likely Armstrong is one of the worst drugs cheat in the history of sport - if not the worst. Cyclists basically can't even compete at the highest level if they're clean - human physiology wont allow the sort of freak athlete people think Armstrong is. Everyone involved in top level cycling knows this, everyone who has retired from it knows this, everyone who is an expert in physiology or blood-work knows it - the only people who don't "know" it are those still doing it or outsiders who only get to hear the odd tidbit from the news - which are usually dominated by the quotable Armstrong muddying the waters by claiming the French hate him or so-and-so has a vendetta against him. The media love it, they lap it up and the average Joe reads the article and sees Armstrong's denial - almost always mentioned near/alongside his work for Cancer - and it seems somehow believable.

The problem he faces if this continues are his PR machine has been so strong on denials and attacks on others for so long they simply can never back down from it now.

because the really good cheaters are ALWAYS two steps ahead of the drug testing agencies. the dopers know how the tests are administered and what they are looking for and the procedures. easy for them to counteract drug testing. as we've seen with sports stars who most people suspect very strongly of having used PED's -- it's really hard to convict them of any wrongdoing. barry bonds, roger clemens, lance armstrong come to mind.

I know its tough to convict them, but the sports cant still ban them even if a court of law cant find them guilty. If there was a lifetime ban for a first time failed test, I think it would deter most athletes.